Design Is In The Details: My Photorealistic Drawings Of Famous European Buildings

I am trying to keep the art of architectural drawing alive as computers are taking over our architectural offices! Very beautiful architectural images can be made on the computer but they are a completely different art form to the traditional intricate pencil and paper drawings.

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I work solely in pencil, and as you can imagine they take days to complete. People often ask me how I have the patience and I think that if you are interested in your subject matter then it is an absolute pleasure not a chore!

The Intricate Architecture Of Oxford Univerisity

This is a beautiful piece of 19th Century British architecture in the heart of Oxford. As soon as I saw the intricate detail of the sculpted facade I immediately wanted to rush to my studio and draw it as realistically as possible.

This drawing was done in pencil and took 4 days (very long days!)

San Simeone Piccolo In Venice

I live in cloudy, cold Scotland so when I go abroad I am struck by the dramatic effects of strong sunlight. I recently went to Venice and wanted to capture in this drawing the beautiful strong shadows created on this building on a clear hot summers day.

Milan Cathedral

I gave myself the challenge of drawing the Duomo in Milan as I wanted to test my ability at drawing in detail at such a large scale (90cm x 90cm). This ended up being more a test of my patience as it took almost two weeks of continuous drawing! By the end I was completely in awe of the craftsmanship and skill that went into sculpting and designing this magnificant facade.

View To The Duomo In Florence

I visited Florence four years ago and observed the dominance and scale of the Duomo in its setting. The street surrounding this inspiring building are narrow and only a few storeys high, the Duomo therefore can be seen from all around the city and acts as a beacon to draw you into the centre. I particularly love the randomness of the silhouetted roofscape which gives an indication of the historic buildings they represent.

St Pauls Cathedral London

In this drawing I wanted to capture St Pauls Cathedral in its setting in the ancient heart of London. It lies just west of the old city centre where the roads are narrow and compact and then suddenly it opens out and you get views down the street to Christopher Wren’s iconic dome.

Street View In Vienna

In this drawing of the Hofburg Palace I wanted to show the contrast between the clean bright stone facade and the rich darkness of the arch.

Canterbury Street

I pieced together different buildings from Canterbury to create this fictional street elevation.

London Houses

This is a commission I did for a family of their five different houses they have lived all joined up in row to create a fictional street; a trip down memory lane!

About the author

Minty Sainsbury is an artist specialising in architectural pencil drawings. She studied Architecture at the University of Cambridge but now works full time as an artist on commissions as well as her own personal projects. Her art work is heavily influenced by the architecture she has seen whilst travelling in the UK and Europe.